Learning Curve
by AlexMercer125
Summary: Hank notices that Connor is still struggling when it comes to interacting with humans months after Markus's revolution. One misunderstanding later Hank helps shed some light on some insecurities Connor's been keeping to himself. Alternatively, Connor is awkward and plagued by existential doubts and Hank is just trying to be a good dad. Rated M for language.


**So, this game has completely taken over my entire life. I suppose it was only a matter of time until It dragged me back into writing. Here's an idea that spiraled out of control. Literally the longest first chapter I've ever written and I am so proud, haha! (I should also mention I haven't written in a very, very long time and I'm out of practice, plus this isn't beta'd, so if you see any mistakes, I apologize).**

* * *

Connor wasn't the best at smiling.

Hank had originally noticed this back at the beginning of their partnership -"I like dogs!"- whoever had coded his social relations program should probably be called into question. Yet he wasn't sure if that nameless someone could be blamed as it didn't seem to get any better in the three months it took them to be reinstated after the revolution. It actually seemed to get worse, though maybe it was because they were back to interrogating purely human suspects/victims.

Well, that wasn't completely true, when Connor smiled (seemingly without realizing it) his smile softened his face- he was ashamed it took him so long to accept Android's inherent humanity every time he saw it. However, a professional smile seemed completely beyond him. Even a basic, polite smile wasn't possible. He looked uncomfortable, and his targets often shared that sentiment.

As a purposeful asshole who tried his best to be anything but welcoming and/or polite, Hank never minded much. But there certainly was a difference between coming off as unfriendly in day to day life and coming off unfriendly while trying to interrogate a grieving family while trying to piece together the scene of a murder. Such was the case currently, as Hank watched from across the living room as Connor was crouched in front of a weeping Widow, with that utterly painful smile plastered across his face as he attempted to… console her? He wasn't sure, to be honest, but Hank knew that he had to intervene soon. There was only so long that someone could take the awkward android hovering over them before they snapped. (He knew from experience).

"Hold on, hold on, Connor, let me talk to her for a moment.", he says as he crosses the room at a sedate pace. It wouldn't help the situation if he looked like he was trying to bluster his partner out of the picture. He probably should've interjected into the conversation in a more subtle fashion but… ah well.

The android looked up over his shoulder, that damnable smile still frozen on his face, and nodded. Standing in one fluid motion, he straightened out his suit (even four months after the revolution he still wore it religiously, at least to work), and stepped to the side to allow Hank to stand in front of the Widow. Sometimes Hank wished he could wordlessly communicate with Connor the same way most androids could, so that way he could tell him when he was being creepy, for fuck's sake. Standing over the woman with that smile wasn't exactly doing much to help Hank's damage control efforts.

"Go look and see if you can find anything new that might help us along, please." If Connor was surprised at his use of the word please, he didn't show it, and just nodded again before turning further into the house. As he turned, Hank could see the smile slip off his face and knew that he'd have to talk to him about something after this. Whether Connor had picked up on the fact that he was being pushed away from interrogating, or if it was something else on his mind, he wasn't sure but for now, he had to focus on the Widow who was steadily building herself into a hysterical frenzy.

Mentally Hank started to count how many shots it would take him to deal with all of the bullshit he'd be going through today, as what he hoped looked like a sympathetic smile eased its way onto his face.

Though at this point it was probably as pained as Connor's.

* * *

The silence was starting to become deafening. Hank had finished up his little Q&A with the Widow relatively quickly after Connor left the room and it had been decided that her Husband's death was most likely nothing more than the result of a burglary gone wrong. Thankfully, a pretty basic resolution considering the whole 'deviant' issue they had to puzzle out before. Yet, instead of the normal chattiness (which really wasn't much, but Hank's tolerance for what he considered chatty was much lower than average), that seemed to inhabit Conner after a successful resolution was missing.

Thankfully it seemed that Connor had enough of the silence as well, as he suddenly whipped around in his seat to face him.

"You know, I had that Lieutenant. You didn't need to intervene like you did." Connor says, and the red flash of his LED paired with the intense frown that had taken residence on the android's face shows Hank how much this was legitimately bothering him. He wondered for a moment if maybe even just Connor making his annoyance clear was difficult for him, having the ability to contradict and outright say 'I don't like what you did to me'. Many androids still had a problem with that, despite Markus's efforts.

"Look, Connor-"

"I understand that sometimes I do not pick up on specific social cues when it comes to humans, but I was following all of the proper protocol when dealing with an aggrieved person- I was attempting to empathize." Here Connor is beginning to look genuinely annoyed and defensive, wrapping his arms around his chest in a way that almost looks like he's trying to restrain himself from gesticulating wildly. Hank knew at this point he's lost all control of the conversation.

"I know, I know-" Hank tries again but is quickly cut off.

"Well then, why would you-"

Connor doesn't get a chance to finish because he's too busy clutching at the dash, his LED flashing a furious red, as Hank suddenly swerves them out of traffic and slams the car into park on one of the abandoned side streets. Before he even has a chance to gather himself, Hank's already twisted around his seat with a finger pointed in his face.

"Goddamnit Connor, listen to me just this once for fuck's sake!" Hank isn't quite yelling, but he's close to it. As much as he absolutely loves the fact that Connor is comfortable enough to even try fighting with him over a perceived wrong, he has the completely wrong idea here and he can't let Connor think he'd do that to him.

He starts again, a little more calmly this time.

"Kid-"

"You know that I am not a child Lieutenant-"

That smug fucking look, Hank wants to throttle him for it but settles for slapping the wheel of his poor car instead.

"And you," he emphasizes his point with his finger, shoving it into Connor's shoulder, "know exactly what I mean when I say kid, you smarmy, plastic asshole." This doesn't seem to dissuade the 'look' whatsoever, at least it's wiped away all outward traces of his anger (almost, Connor's hands are now clenching and unclenching on his knees. So, still mad then.).

He sighs as he realizes that his righteous anger has all but fled from his own body. "Now listen to me, and I'm not going to say it again so you better record this, or whatever you got to do, okay? I didn't take over interrogating the victim's wife because I thought you were incapable."

Connor opens his mouth like he might interject, but a sharp noise from Hank stops him in his tracks. He feels a bit bad since that noise is usually reserved for correctly Sumo from doing something particularly nasty, but he's gotta get this all out now before it can fester.

"I stopped you because, well, sometimes I don't think you realize that, gah-" he stops, and scrubs at his face with his hands. How does he even say this without sounding awful? Normally he would just say it, but fucking hell, the kid was already upset by this whole event and all Hank knows how to do is make things like this worse.

"It's your face."

Fuck.

Hank wants to launch himself off of a cliff at this point.

"Jesus Christ, I didn't mean it like that." He's quick to backtrack, "What I meant is that sometimes you can come across as a little off-putting when you try to talk to someone who's already losing their fucking mind, not that your face makes you incapable." That still wasn't right. This is why he had resigned himself to dying as a bitter, old man before Connor crawled into his life and carved a hole out for himself. He wasn't made for niceties, anymore.

Hank's about to say fuck it, and start pulling his hair out when Connor finally decides to do something besides stare at him and crease his uncreasable impeccable slacks.

"Lieutenant, I understand what you are attempting to say. You don't have to worry about trying to avoid hurting...my feelings," he says this with a look mixed between awe and something akin to existential horror, his LED flashing red for a moment, "I realize that I make people uncomfortable. I was made for the sole purpose of catching deviants, not much else. I'm outfitted with the knowledge I need to conduct investigations but I find that I am… almost hopeless when it comes to interacting with human victims and criminals."

Hank can't help himself, "Well, that's a depressing way to look at it."

The expression of pure confusion that spreads across Connor's face, already so serious and old that it makes Hank's heart hurt.

"You're not hopeless when it comes to relating to people Connor, you're just in the beginning stages of learning on how to interact with the world. Originally I was going to call you out on your creepy ass smile, but I guess that was only the tip of the iceberg." He shifts to get a little more comfortable in the seat of the car, knowing from experience that this could take a while. Connor mimics him, and just knowing it was unnecessary for the android to do so, but he still did it anyway reminds Hank of his inherent naivety.

"What do you know about kids? Like, kindergarten age." He asks. Cole's age. The thought sends a spike through his chest, like always, but he shoves it to the side for the moment.

The question seems to confuse Connor even further, but he answers anyway. "I have access to a large database about the basic functions and cognitive capabilities of children around that age, in case we ever needed to-"

Hank waves a dismissive hand, and the gesture is enough to halt Connor before he can really get into a lecturing state. He gives Hank what constitutes as a sheepish look for him.

"None of that, really, what I meant is do you know how they like, act around adults or other kids? Without all the gobbledygook this time." Hank asks again.

"It's mostly all theory."

He nods, expecting that answer. "Kids are weird, kind of like how you're weird."

Connor looks like he's trying not to pout, and it's so sweet Hank thinks he's having a heart attack for a moment but he plows on, "Even then, it's not really weird, it's because they're still young. They're still trying to figure out what the correct way to act is, and how they want to be seen."

"And you think this relates to me?"

"Yeah, it's pretty much what I've been going with. Kids pick up how to do things like smile, from their parents and other kids, and kind of learn how to… tweak it depending on different social situations. Except, you never really had that, I'm guessing? Just a line of code or something?"

Connor nods, his LED flashing yellow the only indication that he's really absorbing what Hank's saying.

"So yeah, you're not incapable of relating or interacting with humans, it's more like you're new to it, which is true. Social skills, interacting… it's not always something that can just be uploaded. Well, maybe the basics but I think for you, and the other androids maybe, it's still like a muscle you need to learn how to use and make stronger. Just like kids."

"You're saying I need to practice my social skills?" Connor's back to looking at him and his eyes seem to be searching for something in Hank's face.

"Yup."

"And that's the only reason you took over?"

"Yup." Hank pops his 'p' this time, trying to lighten the mood just a little. He's hoping that they can just skirt over the rest of the iceberg that was this conversation, even though he knows it's not likely the best for Conner's newfound emotional intelligence.

"Oh."

Yeah, definitely not skirting around the issue then.

"Why did you think I interrupted?"

At this Connor looks like he'd like to jump out of the car in a dead sprint, and Hank takes a tiny bit of pleasure in the fact that they both were uncomfortable broaching this issue. Conner fiddles a bit with his suit jacket, probably unconsciously looking for his quarter that Hank still hasn't returned (he means too, honestly, but It keeps slipping his mind).

"I admit that I rather not bring it up after our talk about my unrefined social skills, but Markus is always saying that we need to be upfront about this kind of thing."

Oh boy, Markus. He knew that Conner hanging around the original Jericho crew was good for him and he had nothing against that, but sometimes Markus came across as some sort of… he didn't even know what to compare him to. Jesus? Gandhi? And it made Hank uncomfortable that someone so righteous and noble actually existed.

"Go for it, Son."

Subtlety might not be his middle name, but Hank hoped that this would bolster Connor into spitting it out. The android still seemed unsure about their relationship, and it was especially important in this conversation that Connor heard him say that.

It seemed to work as Connor seemed to finally find what he was looking for in Hank's face, and he away from Hank, down into his lap. He'd probably be blushing if he was human, he imagined.

"I-uh, I feel like since I left CyberLife that I am out of my element and that I don't really have much to contribute, anymore?" He said it like a question and even looked at Hank for reassurance with a pained look on his face. After seeing Hank's nod for him to continue, some tension seemed to ease out of his frame and he chose to look directly at Hank this time.

"I was concerned that when you sent me away from the Victim's wife that was a way for you to show your displeasure at my failure to calm her down and question her. And I might have been a little annoyed at being commanded to go look at other evidence, though that was one of those minor annoyances that you eventually forget about." The last bit was added on like an afterthought, but the whole statement was said without any hesitation and Hank felt like his chest was going implode with pride.

It must have shown, because the confidence, almost defiance, that Conner was previously showing faded away a bit to confusion.

Oh, he was smiling. Hah.

"Lieutenant?"

He toned it down a bit. "Don't worry about it, you reminded me of something. Listen, I need you to know that I'm not like those cunts over at CyberLife. You don't have to be 'useful' or 'successful' all the damn time for me to keep you around. Honestly, I wouldn't even really care if you wanted to stay at home all day doing jack shit instead of chasing me around crime scenes."

Hank sighed and put his hand on his partner's shoulder to make sure his point was clear. "I think I've made it pretty clear at this point that I consider you apart of the family, and God knows as long you keep living Sumo will too. You don't have to be 'useful' to be apart of that. Got it?"

God damn this corny shit was going to kill him, but it was all worth it when Connor seemed to practically melt into his hand with the widest grin he'd ever seen on the android's face. His LED finally seemed to settle down, shining a brilliant blue.

"I think I understand, Lieutenant."

"Well even if you don't get it this time, I'll remind you again. And hey, remember, you're allowed to tell me to fuck off every now and then if you don't want to do something, you don't always have to put up with 'small annoyances'." He pulled back his hand so he can restart the car, and to his utter relief, Connor's smile didn't fade a bit.

"Understood, Lieutenant."

"And you know, I'm not the best when it comes to socializing and all that, but if you want, I can try my best to help you with," he gestures vaguely, "all of that."

"I'd like that, Lieutenant."

"Alright, alright, let's get home. There's still half a six-pack with my name on it."

"Yes, Lieutenant."

Hank groaned at the repeated honorific, "What did I say about using my name?"

"To use it." Oh yeah, there was a snicker in that. The kid was playing with him now. Well, Hank wasn't going to play his game.

"Asshole."

Connor tried to reply, but it was cut off into a strangled yelp as Hank rocketed them back onto the busy thoroughfare before he could finish what was undoubtedly another smart comment. Hank allowed himself a chuckle.

* * *

 **Oh lord, I hope that was okay. I wasn't sure if I managed to write Connor and Hank alright, Connor specifically because this boy can go so many ways when you're writing him. I am planning another chapter to kinda wrap up some loose ends that will be pretty heavy on the fluff, lmao. That should be out by Friday, and if not then, Saturday. It honestly depends on how well you all think I did on keeping these guys in character. I might have to revise, etc.**

 **Please let me know if there is anything I can improve on or anything you'd like to see. I am planning on posting more stories centered around Connor and Hank in this series (if I can figure out how to post a series), so ideas are always welcome.**


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